1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fibre channel systems, and more particularly to zone management in fibre channel fabrics.
2. Background of the Invention
Fibre channel is a set of American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standards which provide a serial transmission protocol for storage and network protocols such as HIPPI, SCSI, IP, ATM and others. Fibre channel provides an input/output interface to meet the requirements of both channel and network users.
Fibre channel supports three different topologies: point-to-point, arbitrated loop and fibre channel fabric. The point-to-point topology attaches two devices directly. The arbitrated loop topology attaches devices in a loop. The fibre channel fabric topology attaches host systems directly to a fabric, which are then connected to multiple devices. The fibre channel fabric topology allows several media types to be interconnected.
Fibre channel is a closed system that relies on multiple ports to exchange information on attributes and characteristics to determine if the ports can operate together. If the ports can work together, they define the criteria under which they communicate.
In fibre channel, a path is established between two nodes where the path's primary task is to transport data from one point to another at high speed with low latency, performing only simple error detection in hardware. The fibre channel switch provides circuit/packet switched topology by establishing multiple simultaneous point-to-point connections.
Fibre channel fabric devices include a node port or “N_Port” that manages fabric connections. The N_port establishes a connection to a fabric element (e.g., a switch) having a fabric port or F_port. Fabric elements include the intelligence to handle routing, error detection, recovery, and similar management functions.
A fibre channel switch is a multi-port device where each port manages a simple point-to-point connection between itself and its attached system. Each port can be attached to a server, peripheral, I/O subsystem, bridge, hub, router, or even another switch. A switch receives a message from one port and automatically routes it to another port. Multiple calls or data transfers happen concurrently through the multi-port fibre channel switch.
Fibre channel switches may use multiple modules (also referred to as “blades”) connected by fibre channel ports. Conventionally, a multi-module switch is integrated as a single switch and appears to other devices in the fibre channel fabric as a single switch.
Fibre channel standard FC-GS-3, published Nov. 28th, 2000, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes fabric zones using fibre channel address identifiers. Typically, a network administrator (or a management module) creates a zone. Zoning is used to limit visibility of certain devices in the fabric so that subsets of end-user devices can communicate with each other. Section 8 of the FC-GS-3 standard describes how zones are created.
Conventional zone management techniques as provided by current fibre channel standards (FC-SW-2 and FC-GS-3) do not provide any solution or guidance for zone management in a multi-module switch. Multi-module switches are being extensively used today without efficient zone management.
Therefore, what is required is a process and system for zone management in multi-module fibre channel switches.